That nasty flu season appears to have taken a toll on our productivity as well as our health.

More American workers called in sick in January than during any month in nearly five years, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said this week.

Nearly 2.9 million full-time workers only worked part-time during the week in which they were surveyed because of illness, injury or medical appointment, the BLS said. Also, more than 1.2 million people were off work for the whole week they were surveyed because they were sick, the BLS said.

That’s the highest level of people calling in sick since February 2008, when 1.3 million people missed a full week of work and 3.3 million full-time workers only worked part-time because of illness.

The BLS noted that more people typically call in sick during the winter months, when seasonal illnesses such as cold and the flu are common. But this year appears to have been especially hard on Americans, and on workers.

The flu season got off to an early and aggressive start, but the good news is that it appears to have peaked in late January, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Still, experts warn that the flu could continue to circulate for months.

In addition, other bugs, such as common colds and the stomach flu, can keep workers from heading into the office.

For many workers, getting sick can literally be costly. There is no federal requirement that companies provide paid sick leave, although companies who are subject to the Family and Medical Leave Act requires unpaid sick leave.

About 66 percent of workers have access to paid sick leave, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Full-time workers are much more likely than part-time workers to have paid sick leave, according to the BLS.

We’re proud to know that many LI readers walked to school uphill in the snow, both ways, and they liked it, same as we did when we were kids.

OK, we can be accused of hyperbole (just ask any teenager we’ve had to deal with in the past 10 years) about how we tough it out as much as anyone, but the post this week on faking sick, by country, generated a bunch of comments that had two dominant themes.

1. I NEVER CALL IN SICK.
2. The French call in least? What? That’s because a) they are Euros who don’t work hard and that’s a bad thing or b) they are Euros who don’t work hard and that’s a good thing.

We will not join the Freedom Fries debate. We will, however, kindly remind those he-men (and women) that if your employer provides sick days and you don’t take them when you have a legitimate reason; you are, essentially, leaving money on the table. We’d also ask that you please quit coughing on us. Repeatedly.

How does it feel to be …
A post on prettier people earning more – $230,000 more over the course of a lifetime – also seemed to strike a chord with you. Including the following quizzical comment (in the interest of volume, we’ve turned off the all caps this time):

"Would you rather have lunch with Catherine Zeta Jones or Whoopi Goldberg?"

Commenter: We’d be fine with either. It’s lunch. What’s your point?

Feeling productive
There weren’t a whole lot of solutions proposed for a post on how companies are doing just fine without having to hire due to employees getting more done. There was a lot of anger from both sides of the political spectrum. Mood of the country, obviously.

Finally
Winner in the ongoing Mercer and SMITH (again with the all caps) magazine “six words about work” contest were announced. The contest rules were pretty much in the title. Come up with a six word sentence describing how you feel about work. After our schedule this week, we offer up a belated entry: “Quitting time can’t come soon enough.”